So What's a "Fresher"?

As I wrote in my previous post, all of the local “Freshers” moved in over the past few days, and last night was the official kick off to Fresher’s week. Needless to say, it’s been beyond crazy.

Here in the UK Fresher’s Week is a *Big Deal*. I’d heard it mentioned in documentaries about Will and Kate (yes, go ahead, mock) or English movies and TV shows, but I had no idea what it was really about. It’s an odd thing to experience, especially since we don’t really have anything like it in America. Back home, students can’t legally drink when they first go off to college, and even though many find ways to consume alcohol before turning 21, there aren’t any mammoth sized celebrations intended to let you blow off steam and get partying and drinking out of your system before classes start. 

I thought I’d be prepared, since I’d been to a frat party before, but I’ve never seen anything on this scale. Every single night for a week and a half there are at least 2-3 parties running until 3 am that are free to £5 for entrance, organizations and dorms are practically giving away drinks, and students run amok in sweaty, skimpy clothing for as far as the eye can see. It’s truly wild. 

Last night, in honor of the opening of Fresher’s Week, the student union threw open their doors and invited students in to all 5-6 bars (or pubs), and 3-4 nightclubs. The air was seething with dance music for miles. Crowd control was a must, every surface in the area was sticky with God only knows what. 

My friends and I, however, started the night out with a glass of wine and headed over to the roller disco at 9:30 (we wanted to get an early start, and therefore an early end, to the night). It was loads of fun! We all strapped on our roller skates Jessica Simpson style (see video), and glided around the hall to the dulcet sounds of Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi” and “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5. 

Although I feel and crashed in to some other innocent skaters, we all had a really good time, and headed down to one of the union pubs afterwards to listen to live acoustic music. I had a soda and found out that the English put lemon slices in their Coke! What a delightful surprise! I was a little suspicious at first, but I actually really liked the lemon, you could actually taste it a little bit in the Coke. 

New Friends! Judith, Petra, and Sara

We headed home at midnight, just as everyone else seemed to be arriving and queuing up at the entrance. As I said, it was a wild, wild time, and these Freshers, new to Uni life seem to have a whole lot they need to get out of their system.